British Telecom receives ILD, NLD licenses

New Delhi, Feb 21 (UNI) British Telecom (BT) today announced it has been granted international long distance (ILD) and national long distance (NLD) licenses by the Department of Telecommunications.

These licenses enable its newly-formed joint venture company, BT Telecom India Pvt Ltd, to offer services for the first time directly to multisite corporate customers in the domestic market.

Minister of Communication and IT Dayanidhi Maran said, ''To further promote investment into India and enhance business opportunities for Indian companies operating overseas, India must have the best and latest infrastructure.'' These licenses will allow BT to bring its 21 CN services to India's IT and ITeS sector and increasing their competitiveness through connectivity, availability, quality and responsiveness on a global scale, he added.

BT plans to provide corporate customers who have sites in India with virtual private network-based (VPN) services using technologies such as internet protocol-based multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) and ATM.

''This is fantastic news, allowing BT to establish and manage our own operations in India. Its also great news for our multinational customers doing business in India and our Indian customers wanting to access a BT-managed network which is connected to BT's comprehensive global network across Asia Pacific, Europe and North America,'' BT Chief Executive Officer (Global Services) Andy Green said.

The company announced growth plans for its Indian operations in September 2006, predicting that its revenues from India will be 250 million dollars by 2009 and that it is looking to increase its employee strength in the country by hiring an additional 6,000 people within the next two years.

This month, it signed an agreement for the acquisition of i2i Enterprise Pvt Ltd, a Mumbai-based enterprise services company specialising in internet protocol (IP) communications services for major Indian and global multinational companies.

BT also plans to add additional resources to support its already substantial capabilities in outsourcing and systems integration services.

UNI